Inequality of Opportunity and Economic Growth : A Cross-Country Analysis
Income differences arise from many sources. While some kinds of inequality, caused by effort differences, might be associated with faster economic growth, other kinds, arising from unequal opportunities for investment, might be detrimental to econo...
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/06/19646107/inequality-opportunity-economic-growth-cross-country-analysis http://hdl.handle.net/10986/18764 |
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okr-10986-187642021-04-23T14:03:49Z Inequality of Opportunity and Economic Growth : A Cross-Country Analysis Ferreira, Francisco H.G. Lakner, Christoph Lugo, Maria Ana Ozler, Berk CIRCUMSTANCES AT BIRTH ECONOMIC GROWTH INCOME INEQUALITY INEQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY METADATA SETS UNEQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR INVESTMENT Income differences arise from many sources. While some kinds of inequality, caused by effort differences, might be associated with faster economic growth, other kinds, arising from unequal opportunities for investment, might be detrimental to economic progress. This study uses two new metadata sets, consisting of 118 household surveys and 134 Demographic and Health Surveys, to revisit the question of whether inequality is associated with economic growth and, in particular, to examine whether inequality of opportunity -- driven by circumstances at birth -- has a negative effect on subsequent growth. The results are suggestive but not robust: while overall income inequality is generally negatively associated with growth in the household survey sample, we find no evidence that this is due to the component associated with unequal opportunities. In the Demographic and Health Surveys sample, both overall wealth inequality and inequality of opportunity have a negative effect on growth in some of the preferred specifications, but the results are not robust to relatively minor changes. On balance, although the results are suggestive of a negative association between inequality and growth, the data do not permit robust conclusions as to whether inequality of opportunity is bad for growth. 2014-06-25T21:25:50Z 2014-06-25T21:25:50Z 2014-06 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/06/19646107/inequality-opportunity-economic-growth-cross-country-analysis http://hdl.handle.net/10986/18764 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 6915 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
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Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English en_US |
| topic |
CIRCUMSTANCES AT BIRTH ECONOMIC GROWTH INCOME INEQUALITY INEQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY METADATA SETS UNEQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR INVESTMENT |
| spellingShingle |
CIRCUMSTANCES AT BIRTH ECONOMIC GROWTH INCOME INEQUALITY INEQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY METADATA SETS UNEQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR INVESTMENT Ferreira, Francisco H.G. Lakner, Christoph Lugo, Maria Ana Ozler, Berk Inequality of Opportunity and Economic Growth : A Cross-Country Analysis |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 6915 |
| description |
Income differences arise from many
sources. While some kinds of inequality, caused by effort
differences, might be associated with faster economic
growth, other kinds, arising from unequal opportunities for
investment, might be detrimental to economic progress. This
study uses two new metadata sets, consisting of 118
household surveys and 134 Demographic and Health Surveys, to
revisit the question of whether inequality is associated
with economic growth and, in particular, to examine whether
inequality of opportunity -- driven by circumstances at
birth -- has a negative effect on subsequent growth. The
results are suggestive but not robust: while overall income
inequality is generally negatively associated with growth in
the household survey sample, we find no evidence that this
is due to the component associated with unequal
opportunities. In the Demographic and Health Surveys sample,
both overall wealth inequality and inequality of opportunity
have a negative effect on growth in some of the preferred
specifications, but the results are not robust to relatively
minor changes. On balance, although the results are
suggestive of a negative association between inequality and
growth, the data do not permit robust conclusions as to
whether inequality of opportunity is bad for growth. |
| format |
Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper |
| author |
Ferreira, Francisco H.G. Lakner, Christoph Lugo, Maria Ana Ozler, Berk |
| author_facet |
Ferreira, Francisco H.G. Lakner, Christoph Lugo, Maria Ana Ozler, Berk |
| author_sort |
Ferreira, Francisco H.G. |
| title |
Inequality of Opportunity and Economic Growth : A Cross-Country Analysis |
| title_short |
Inequality of Opportunity and Economic Growth : A Cross-Country Analysis |
| title_full |
Inequality of Opportunity and Economic Growth : A Cross-Country Analysis |
| title_fullStr |
Inequality of Opportunity and Economic Growth : A Cross-Country Analysis |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Inequality of Opportunity and Economic Growth : A Cross-Country Analysis |
| title_sort |
inequality of opportunity and economic growth : a cross-country analysis |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2014 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/06/19646107/inequality-opportunity-economic-growth-cross-country-analysis http://hdl.handle.net/10986/18764 |
| _version_ |
1764442634665852928 |